All this winter I've enjoyed piling onto a dinner plate chopped up arugula, mizuna, Bonar, scallion tops, purple kosaitai, garlic leaves, raw yellow onions and more, then squeezing onto it all the juice of one fresh orange from my neighbor Theresa's tree, or six or so of my own tart calamondins. Next, one goes coarse black pepper, and, as "the piece of resistance", a nice drizzle of the extra virgin olive oil I stockpiled in my freezer when Big Lots had 1 liter bottles for just $5. Tasty, very cheap and FRESH! John

Thursday, January 27, 2011

I went "mental" over Old Roses in Denver in 1989 after living there for a year and a half, and until two years ago they were a primary shaping passion of my life. But I realized some months ago that for the last two years or so I'd lost easily 90% OF that passion due to six years of unrelenting long term drought and draconian watering restrictions that had steadily decimated my collection, leaving me with a few tough stalwarts like 'Mermaid', R. bracteata, "Barfield White Climber", 'Newport Fairy', "Pink Cracker Rose", Francois Juranville, and R. laevigata. As an urban farmer who grows most of his own food and who has seen the lush wet green Florida of his youth (Key West native) turn into a dessicated sandy peninsula prone to catatrosphic fires, with the Everglades at death's door, I use what little water I DO have access on my food crops vs. roses. Plus I have heartbreakingly witnessed Tampa's high chlorides/high sodium reclaimed water destroy in months wonderful collections I'd created over the years in my landscape clients' gardens. So 20/20 hindsight made me realize some months ago that SLOWLY, very slowly, I'd lost most of my love for roses as here in Tampa they are a VERY rare sight except in the landscapes of the VERY wealthy who can afford sprinkler systems that A. Let them evade the restrictions without getting busted and B. They can AFFORD the resultant water bills. But with Tampa Water now talking about QUADRUPLING the base water rate, rose growing here could be even more of a challenge. But I MIGHT be getting my roses mojo back due to something I invented a few years ago by trying to figure out why so many of my St. Pete Times readers did not like their expensive Earth Boxes for veggies growing.....

I take 5-7 gallon discarded plastic buckets, and, for roses, use a 3/4 inch paddle bit to make about 5 drainage holes on the SIDES of each bucket, about 3 inches from the bottom, add layers of soil and compost, plant the rose, then bury the bucket. This protects the plastic from the brutal UV here, but also, when the rose gets rootbound, the roots can exit those holes at that depth of 2 feet or more where the sandy soil will have at least SOME moisture present and hopefully anchor then grow deeper towards the ever-dropping water table. Prototype plantings out front seem very hopeful: Safrano, "Fairmount Proserpine", Baronne Prevost, "Pink Cracker Rose", "Natchogotches Yellow" (sp?), "Morrocan Rose" and Cramoisi Superieur seem to be thriving! So even though my income has plunged due to the loss of my Times column 2 years as they struggle to stay afloat, I just placed a big order from Chamblee's Roses (Mark just called to confirm the order) plus will order an Autumn Damask from ARE and a THIRD 'Louis XIV' and 'E. Veyrat Hermanos' from RU. All will be planted in what I call 'Water Wise Container Gardens' and buried as one last effort to grow roses RESPONSIBLY in my native Florida, in hopes I can recover all my former roses passion. The whole experience reminds me of long term married folks I've known who've shared with me that they'd realized they'd fallen OUT of love with their spouses and wanted it back. Since I am still healing from the demise of my first real romance since 1994 with a top shelf guy who turned out to be confused and in denial about his sexuality, loving roses again could perhaps aid that process too.

I must apologize to Kim and Anita for failing to mail them cuttings of "Pink Cracker Rose" for a year now plus losing my cherished plant of "Not Fortune's Yellow" to this freakin' drought before I buried its bucket as I had not yet cut down the MONSTROUS Mermaid that had consumed my front yard. "Pink Cracker Rose" is now buried out front in a buried 7 gallon Water Wise Container Garden made from a swimming pool tablets bucket and should take off in the spring. Realizing that I had failed Anita and Kim repeatedly was a wake up call that I was very close to not caring about roses.

A few other catalysts to getting the fire in my belly back was having success in early prototypes of these Water Wise Container Gardens made from tree pots and 15 gallon detergent jugs with "Fairmount Red", Louise Odier, "Jo An's Pink Perpetual" (a Fairmount Cemetery rose), Pat Austin, and "York Street Yellow" (one of Tony Tichy's Denver finds), plus being asked to speak about Probiotic Rose Gardening at a roses festival April 30th near Gainesville, plus learning recently that my article on that topic was published in the newly-released wonderful book ' The Sustainable Rose Garden' co-edited by our own Gene Waering and Pat Shanley and Peter Kukielski.

Today I made three postings at my roses blog (see link below) about the roses at Denver's Fairmount Cemetery, and my years of work with them.

So maybe I AM falling back in love with roses!! Like I told Lee Sherman, if this labor intensive approach of buried Water Wise Container Gardens DOES not work in the increasingly dry climate here, that could well trigger a final break up and divorce. In my youth I could have never imagined that a flower of all things could be so capable of moving OR stilling my heart.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I have rolls of scavenged carpet around the back yard and I periodically unroll them in sight of the chickens who DASH over to feast on the roaches seething inside. Food scraps rolled up inside the carpet give an even bigger harvest of live food for the chickens. Nice to see roach protein converted to chicken protein......plus I have a very minimal problem with roaches inside and out as a result.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Don't worry, I've not been watching 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' too much, I'm just training some climbing roses and have run out of panty hose I've been given before. I'd love to trade seeds or plants with local folks for oodles of used panty hose with runs as it is easy to turn them into plant ties that don't rub or strangle stems and canes. The color does not matter as they end up being hidden by new growth and foliage. Thanks! John

Monday, January 24, 2011

My neighbor Helen's maple across the street from me, having just lost its leaves last month, is in full ruddy bloom. A few of my chickens lay an egg every few days. Plus I can feel on a primal level the increasing daylengths when sunbeams warm my face and chest as I work in the gardens. And so I am reminded of my favorite symphony 'Appalachian Spring' by Aaron Copland. Of the many performances I've seen and heard on-line and CD, this one feels to me to be especially fresh and intimate. Enjoy, John

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Today I created my first restaurant waste-powered worm bin from a white plastic 55 gallon barrel my friend Tim gave me. A dumpster-dived jig saw let me easily cut out the top INSIDE the barrel rim (to preserve rigidity I learned the hard way some years back). Using a pencil-thick bit, I then perforated the sides of the barrel with many dozens of holes to improve air flow. I will rely on pulled weeds and wood chips from a tree trimming service to hopefully aereate the layers of waste from a restaurant just three blocks north of me that now readily feeds my poultry as I provide fresh greens for their menu. I plan on making two more vermiculture barrels as the restaurant produces FAR more waste than my chickens and ducks can eat. Bulk production of worm poop seems to me to be very much worth looking into and implementing as a means of improving soil fertility, improving the health and egg production of my chickens and ducks since the worms themselves are coveted by both. Total "win win" !

I am again sharing this 1980s music video I thankfullyl learned of recently, and have become as enamored of it as I am
of 'Drive' by The Cars as it is proving to be fuel for my creative efforts, especially when I am altered. I find it to be exquisitely trippy.
John

Friday, January 21, 2011

This article ran in my gardening column in The Rocky Mountain News in 2004.....it should be applicable in most snowy winter regions. John

PRECIOUS HARVEST

Despite those first few hopeful signs of life emerging from our cold soil, such as jewel-like crocuses and the green tips of daffodils poised like cupid’s arrows, we are still a month away from our first treasured petite couquets of long-awaited blossoms.But each winter and every spring we can give our yards and gardens a much-appreciated harvest of what March and April in particular provide in abundance…..

Snow...Yup, the spring months can be our snowiest, with the snow much wetter and more dense than the lighter, fluffier snows that form in winter’s bitter cold. “Harvesting” that snow simply by shoveling it to various gardens that would benefit from the moisture is just as easy as flinging it randomly beside the driveway. For example, many of us have a “Hell Strip” hugging the curb that is perpetually dry….shoveling snow from your sidewalk and street onto it all winter and spring will build up a wonderful reserve of soil moisture. Just think of it as “mulching” with snow.

Spring bulbs and pansies really benefit from a slowly melting snow mulch when they are still too short to be bent over by the weight. Roses of all kinds, Old or Modern, own root or grafted, all relish the slow steady watering provided by melting snow. If you have perennials gardens, or beds full of self-sown annuals, the snow mulch not only aids spring growth and germination but as with the bulbs and pansies act as an insulator during those inevitable, brutal late freezes.

Trees, shrubs and hedges and especially roses in Colorado often endure “winter drought stress”, especially in south facing areas of properties…shoveling the snow from nearby walkways and driveways and patios onto their root zones is an effective preventative. Just be sure to not use salt or other de-icers on those surfaces to avoid harming your soil. South facing areas of lawn that fall prey to drought and drought-induced mites also benefit from snow mulching, and organically fed, biologically active lawns will generally be immune to “snow mold” associated with standing snow on chemically maintained lawns.

Each fall, many of us veggie gardeners lovingly nourish our soil with compost, fish meal or manure, then turn it to let winter temps “mellow” it while killing the seeds and eggs of weeds and pests. Harvesting snow as a mulch for the food garden will help insure that the soil is wonderfully damp come planting time. Perennial vegetables like asparagus, sunchokes, horseradish and rhubarb will equally welcome that cold trickle of nutrient-laden moisture reaching their winter weary roots.

For years, my neighbors in northeast Denver have good naturedly teased me about my obsessively shoveling not only my sidewalks and patios but also my side of the street in front of my home on Willow so as to harvest mountains of snow for my west-facing “Hell Strips” filled with own root roses, perennials, bulbs and self-sowing annuals. Plus as a native Floridian who sees no charm in Colorado winters I take great pleasure in defying the cold by exposing a big rectangle of warm dry asphalt for me and our mail carriers to park on when the rest of the street looks like a skating rink Who knows how many hundreds (thousands?) of gallons of natural water those perversely fun snow harvests from the street have treated those curb-hugging beds to over the years?

Old Man Winter did little to help with the drought this year. But even if you are weary of winter and beyond eager for spring, make harvesting spring snows one of the year’s earliest gardening rituals and do something healing for both your soil and your spirit

Tired of your vegetable and ornamental gardens and landscapes failing to thrive? Looking to add color and get away from chemical-based yard care? Organic gardening columnist John Starnes ('Florida Gardening' magazine, 'Heirloom Gardener', 'Sunset Magazine', 'Colorado Gardener', 'The Rocky Mountain News', 'Sustainable Rose Gardening', 'The St. Pete Times') continues to offer wide ranging consultations that address ongoing problems in landscapes, and that also explore untapped potentials. For 19 years John nurtured many bay area and Colorado landscapes with his one man business THE GARDEN DOCTOR.Special focuses include Water Wise Container Gardening, reducing landscape water use, curing lawn problems, choosing plants that can survive Tampa's toxic-to-plants reclaimed water, incorporating low-care Old Roses into gardens for color and fragrance, growing much of one's own food in the landscape and without pesticides by relying on both annual and perennial crops, creating or rectifying no-filter low-care goldfish ponds, plus special concerns one might have such as growing colorful plants in shady or soggy areas, backyard poultry raising and more. About 2-3 hours is required, as is note-taking by the client to enhance those I will provide. Where needed, I will create quick sketches to demonstrate possible garden design options to consider implementing. This $145 price has remained the same for 13 years now, but a travel charge to areas outside of Tampa is possible.

Please feel free to contact me with questions you might have about this service.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Just look at how much energy from the sun lands on our homes and yards, day after day, just waiting to be used! To heck with oil gained by taking it from peoples around the planet by killing them in their own countries as a by-product of "spreading democracy" and "freedom" (America, "Land of the Free", has the highest rate of incarceration of its citizens of any country in the world). Cooking some of my food and heating my daily shower water with simple solar methods, enjoying cannabis, and growing much of my food is, for me, a robust and healthy response to the empire-building that the Founding Fathers warned against. I am so thankful to the pragmatic "tinkerers" who discover and create then apply simple solar concepts for us to play with, explore, and possibly embrace as alternatives to the fossil fuel-based energy grid. I am a tightwad and love free hot shower water! John

Each fall, winter and spring I grow 'Dwarf Jewel Mix' nasturtium in mass plantings for cheerful color, fragrance and to toss into salads. Plus they hearken me to my childhood in Michigan. I buy the seeds by the pound CHEAP at Applewood Seeds in Golden. Colorado. But this winter, like last, my first two sowings, which should be in full glorious splendor by now, were zapped by the freezes. So I just did a third mass planting in four beds. I love capers and for years have read of people salting and pickling immature flower buds and green seeds as home made capers substitutes and IF this sowing survives I will give it a try on a smale scale. Has anyone done this?

I was given an electric food dehydrator and will dry and crush and store in jars dried nasturtium leaves to sprinkle on summer salads to add piquancy. Since basil loses most of its "oomph" when dried I will be curious to see how nasturtium leaves fare.

I love to pick small bouquets of nasturtium blooms mainly to make it easier to smell their incredible perfumes. In Denver and here I've grown other strains but without a doubt, 'Dwarf Jewel Mix' is my favorite hands down, in part because it often self sows very well for the following autumn and winter. John

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

I have not had a Wacky Hat Party here since I stopped returning to Denver in 2002....I'd say it's time!! Just show up with yummy food and adorned in a ludicrous hat you make, buy or dumpster dive (see samples of hats past!). I will have 4 pounds of "Rocket Fuel" for folks to toss handfuls of onto the hot coals, but I am low on firewood, so feel free to bring wood scraps from your yard you'd like to see burned up....in this chilly La Nina winter I bet we are assured of a cold night that a grand fire would add pleasure and comeraderie to. As usual there is no theme to the food.....I just ask a minimal emphasis on desserts, and keep in mind maybe half here will be omnivores like me and half vegetarian or vegan. I will make a huge salad from the gardens with a vegan dressing. I will also have fried African Yellow Yams. I will also boast my long unused "rotten hilbilly teeth" insert which looks even "better" if I eat a Reese's cup while wearing them.....if no handsome men attempt to kiss me, I will understand why!

Gardeners....feel free to bring seeds and envelopes, plus cuttings/plants you'd like to share in informal swaps throughout the night vs. a structured event. I will have cool seeds to share for sure.

For those who've not been here, my address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 Ph. 813 839 0881 I hope this much notice allows lots of folks to plan on attending. Just park all along Paxton Avenue. My Dad gave me a big new fridge some months back so I will have lots of room for beer, wine and food.

I hope to see you (and your Wacky Hats) that evening as we celebrate good food, friends and the approach of spring.

Many folks these days are considering, or have followed through on, pursuing a long time desire to raise backyard chickens for fresh eggs or even meat they know the origins of. I've had chickens on and off since the mid 90s, and can share how to raise happy, healthy, antibiotic-free chickens and eggs VERY frugally. I am teaching this well-received class again on February 12th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. Please bring a note pad and pen as we will cover many points. You will receive a pack of winter greens seeds to sow now to provide raw green plant matter VITAL to having healthy backyard chickens. 813 839 0881 or e-mail to RSVP. See you then! John Starnes

Urban Farmsteading Basics 101 2-20-2011

There is no security more reassuring than daily harvesting fresh meals from your front and back yard, just feet from the kitchen, even if just potted arugula or snow peas or cherry tomatoes for starters, or a fresh chicken egg or meat. But don't know where and how to start? Learn easy ways to deeply cut your water use, to insure fresh salads and root crops and fruits year round, a super cheap solar shower, and more. You'll get a lesson sheet of 15 topics to be covered; please be sure to bring a notepad and pen. Feel free to shoot pics and video. You will receive two free packets of cool weather veggie seeds, plus instructions on their culture, harvest and use. I've taught this class many times and folks say it it thorough and intense. It addresses a way of life and a mindset vs. being just a gardening class. I am teaching this class again on February 20, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Question and Answer session after. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. Happy Gardening! John 813 839 0881

Fermented Foods 101 2-19-2011

Many folks are realizing the wide spectrum of health benefits of eating probiotic fermented foods, but that also they can be very pricey in the health food stores and grocery stores. Garden writer John Starnes (Fine Gardening, St. Pete Times, Florida Gardening) loves to grow and cook and prepare foods for friends and himself, and in this class will show easy very affordable ways to make your own kefir, natto, tempeh, kimchee, and cheese. There will be samples for tasting too. Be sure to bring a note pad and pen to write down the simple steps and ingredients, some of which can come from your own garden. The class will be held on February 19, from 11 AM until 1:30 PM, and the cost is $20 per student. The address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa 33611 813 839 0881 Please park along the south side of Paxton to spare the lawns of my neighbors on the north side. Thanks. Come hungry!

Growing Food, Cultivating Freedom and Harvesting Joy 2-13-2011

Growing and raising much of your own food can free you from an unsatisfying job and addiction to the New Serfdom of endless debt as a "consumer". Celebrate this new year by taking this class to learn three basics of successful gardening in central Florida, see the ease of a few backyard chickens for fresh eggs, plus, primarily, get two handouts with 30 key techniques, attitude shifts, and resources that can allow us to discover what we REALLY want out of life, how to live frugally, and ways to shed old, restrictive thinking and living habits and replace them with pleasurable, expansive ones to create a self-perpetuating positive feedback loop of habitual joy and gratitude. People say my trippy livingroom exemplifies "thinking outside of the box that the box came in" so most of the class will be held in there after we tour my urban farm. I feel that happiness is a choice we can make daily, and that we can create our lives vs. them just happening to us, with productive gardening as the key. I will offer this class again on February 13, from 11 AM until 1 PM here at 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa, FL 33611 813 839 0881 to RSVP. Please park on the south side of Paxton. The cost is $20 per student. Each student will receive 1 free packet of easy-to-grow seeds with instructions on their culture and harvest and use. See you then! John

Plan Now for a Productive Organic Spring and Summer Food Garden 2-5-2011 2-27-2011

There is an unfortunate widespread myth that summers are too hot, muggy and buggy to grow a successful organic garden here, but nothing could be further from the truth. Healthy soil and choosing subtropical and tropical crops that LOVE the heat is the key to fresh abundance from your yard for that long hot half of the year when so many folks let their gardens go barren and weedy. You will receive a handout with a long list of heat-loving crops, plus I will give you seeds of two kinds that utterly thrive each summer here. Growing these crops organically is easy as very few pests attack them, but we will cover those few possible problems and how to deal with them cheaply and without using poisons.

The class will be offered twice in February: on the 5th and the 27th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after, to give you time to plan the summer garden, prepare the soil, and acquire the needed seeds and soil foods. The cost is $20 per student, and my address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 813 839 0881 JohnAStarnes @msn.com RSVP is helpful in my planning how to best teach this class.

Just think....as your winter garden fizzles out each spring, you can phase in six more months of adundant home grown food with a whole new range of tastes, textures and nutrition! See you then. John

Tropical Fruit Crops 101 2-26-2011

We have SO many choices for fruit crops for our landscapes beyond citrus, especially if we live and garden in warmer areas closer to the coast. You will learn how to improve the soil, where to grow the respective crops discussed, and receive a detailed handout with a very lengthy list of fruiting plants you can seek out for your edible landscape. Not only do these plants bless us with tasty nutritious fruits, they add visual lushness to any yard. Local and mail order sources of them will be covered too. The cost is $20 per student, and the class will be held here at my home on February 26 from 11 AM until 1 PM. John

Perennial Food Crops 2-6-2011

Crops that need to be planted just once and that bear food year after year is a central aspect of permaculture and urban farming. Thankfully, our balmy climate allows us a great many such plants, often easily propagated by cuttings and root divisions. The handout provided lists many of these perennial food crops and I will add to them throughout the class. As usual, the class is $20 per person, held here at my home at 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL33611, and will be taught on February 6 from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute. Each student will receive a free start of a perennial food crop. See you then, John

"This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. . . . We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron." - President Dwight Eisenhower The "Chance For Peace" speech April 16, 1953

There is no security more reassuring than daily harvesting fresh meals from your front and back yard, just feet from the kitchen, even if just potted arugula or snow peas or cherry tomatoes for starters, or a fresh chicken egg or meat. But don't know where and how to start? Learn easy ways to deeply cut your water use, to insure fresh salads and root crops and fruits year round, a super cheap solar shower, and more. You'll get a lesson sheet of 15 topics to be covered; please be sure to bring a notepad and pen. Feel free to shoot pics and video. You will receive two free packets of cool weather veggie seeds, plus instructions on their culture, harvest and use. I've taught this class many times and folks say it it thorough and intense. It addresses a way of life and a mindset vs. being just a gardening class. I am teaching this class again on the 22nd, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Question and Answer session after. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. Happy Gardening! John 813 839 0881

Non-toxic "Green" Pest and Disease Control 1-23-2011

Many homeowners and gardeners and pet lovers alike think we MUST use toxic pesticides to control plant-ravaging bugs and diseases, plus swarms of fleas and roaches and mosquitos that can make make life miserable for us and our animal companions, and poultry mites in our henhouses biting us AND the birds. This class will teach you a great many natural, non-or-least toxic methods of controlling and eliminating those scourges, including biological methods that need be purchased just once from mail order or local sources. I shared some of these techniques with my readers for the eight years I had a gardening column in The St. Pete Times. All of these control methods are VERY inexpensive (hey, I’m a lifelong pathologically cheap tightwad!) and easy to acquire or make at home. Food self sufficiency gardeners like me CAN enjoy fresh produce all year long by defeating pests without poisoning those crops or the environment. A detailed handout, complimented by the notes you take (bring a pad and pen please) will let you begin right away winning the “battle against bugs and fungus” all year long. I am teaching this class again on January 23, from 11 AM until 1 PM. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. To RSVP call: 813 839 0881 Happy Gardening! John

Monday, January 17, 2011

"This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. . . . We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron." - President Dwight Eisenhower The "Chance For Peace" speech April 16, 1953

I used to know someone who grew this VERY fast growing tropical shrub/tree and I can eat hundreds of the yummy fruits filled with HUNDREDS of EXTREMELY tiny seeds that always germinated quickly for me, as did seeds I've bought. Problem is, the seedlings JUST WON'T GROW for me, regardless of soil or nutrients or time of year. They stay impossibly teensy, frozen in time. The oddly styrofoam-like branches would never root for me either. And I want a HEDGE of it! The flavor of the fruits is divine, maybe a mix of watermelon and cotton candy, and the shrub itself is extremely productive year round. If you know how to grow the seeds please tell me! And if you live in a very mild area where hard frosts are rare, give growing this gem a try....IF you can find one. John

I like how an informal form of commerce exists between the folks I know as we freely share and sometimes trade items we scavenge curbside or from dumpsters, or things we grow and raise like eggs and fresh produce. I have a VAST selection of food crops seeds and edible food crops plants (cassava, Thai hot peppers, edible thornless Opuntia cactus, Chaya, perennial native garlic, various yams). In the spring I will have MANY fresh eggs daily, and have oodles of fresh arugula right now, and I'd love to barter with local folks who might have the following:

1. A powerful box fan to run in my bedroom window each summer....my current one is quite wimpy.

As I sit here happily trapped indoors by wave after wave of rain coming in from the Gulf, I wish to thank my urban farming friend Pat Lawhead for giving me a couple days ago nearly 1 pound each of seeds of 'Bonar Rape' and 'Dwarf Essex Rape' to share with friends and to give to my students. My Dad and I have been talking casually about my making my own hot water for dishes and the washing machine, and a black rain barrel that Pat also gave me will the catalyst for a first effort. I have lots of mirror and foil, and will try building some kind of reflectors behind and beside it to see how hot I can get the water. I LOVE the idea of pouring a 7 gallon swimming pool tablets bucket of solar heated water into my washing machine as it fills, or bringing in two gallons to wash the dishes with. Thanks Pat!

Forecasts call for 80-90% chance of rain today.....I'd love it if it rained all day as I just sowed a lot of 'Dwarf Essex Rape' seeds into the now closed up baby chicken (formerly quail) pen to grow as a poultry pasture, and today flung a few handfuls of 'Barnapoli Rape' seeds into the ducks' main area they are now excluded from as they de-weed an adjoining area, now that they've rendered it weed-free and super fertile. In a month I can harvest leaves for my use and to sell for salads, and periodically let the birds in to feast for their best health and pleasure.

Ah how wonderful to hear rain on my roof and thunder out over the Gulf! John

p.s. enjoy the video of the innaugural launch of Pat's incredible hand built canoe.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

This has been my favorite movie since I first saw it in 1982, the year I quit smoking tobacco. (There are better dried leaves to smoke.)
Portions of it were filmed at the Biltmore estate,,,,,I should go there some year when the roses are at peak bloom.

This was Peter Sellers' last movie, and I feel that he and his close friend Shirley McLaine blessed us with elegantly focused performances. Seeing it in 1982 was a prime catalyst for gardening eclipsing art as a primary life focus for me.

Year after year after year, these last few mysterious moments bring me to joyful tears. Enjoy, John

Two friendly local restaurant owners and I now swap their kitchen waste for fresh arugula and more to come from my urban farm in south Tampa. One restaurant is just three blocks north of me, and daily they sit out back a 7 gallon swimming pool tablets bucket (with lid) filled with a broad mix of food scraps. I give them arugula for the menu, a potted Thai hot pepper plant for their chef, plus now I will bring in bags of salad greens to the delightful woman dishwasher who scrapes the customers' plates. The other guy owns a gourmet pizza restaurant on Davis Island and works out at my gym....he brings buckets of kitchen scraps to the gym a few times weekly, he now gets to offer his customers arugula pizzas with white cheeses, no red sauce, and my poultry get his salad bar and pizza waste that formerly ended up in a landfill. My chickens and Muscovy ducks eat better than ever, and both restaurants benefit from trading their former "garbage" for fresh organic produce, and, when the girls resume laying this spring, fresh free range eggs too. Talk about a win-win scenario!

Some folks ask me if I'm afraid to eat eggs and meat from birds that eat restaurant food that may well contain MSG and hydrogenated fat.....I have three answers:

1. No. I'm cheap, live on about $8,000 a year, and commercial chicken feed is PRICEY.
2. That feed is based on GMO corn and soybeans, both of which I try hard to avoid consuming or
supporting.
3. My diet is so not normal American...I eat very little processed food and a great deal of raw food eaten
moments after I pick it. I eat mostly organic home cooked meals and rarely eat out, maybe a few Taco
Bell bean burritos monthly, and once a month I pig out at the wonderful Tampa Buffet at Britton Plaza
where I eat my body weight in sushi and raw and cooked seafood. So what little additives that make it
past the chickens' body filters just does not worry me. I tried that "purist" thing regarding ethical diet in my
20s in the 70s and ended up near paralyzed by inaction and poor health as a vegan whose body simply is
not healthy when I am not an omnivore.

So consider approaching your own neighborhood restaurants to see if they might enjoy a similar swap arrangement to boost prosperity for you, them, AND your poultry.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Many folks are realizing the wide spectrum of health benefits of eating probiotic fermented foods, but that also they can be very pricey in the health food stores and grocery stores. Garden writer John Starnes (Fine Gardening, St. Pete Times, Florida Gardening) loves to grow and cook and prepare foods for friends and himself, and in this class will show easy very affordable ways to make your own kefir, natto, tempeh, kimchee, and cheese. There will be samples for tasting too. Be sure to bring a note pad and pen to write down the simple steps and ingredients, some of which can come from your own garden. The class will be held on January 15 from 11 AM until 1:30 PM, and the cost is $20 per student. The address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa 33611 813 839 0881 Please park along the south side of Paxton to spare the lawns of my neighbors on the north side. Thanks. Come hungry!

Many folks these days are considering, or have followed through on, pursuing a long time desire to raise backyard chickens for fresh eggs or even meat they know the origins of. I've had chickens on and off since the mid 90s, and can share how to raise happy, healthy, antibiotic-free chickens and eggs VERY frugally. I am teaching this well-received class twice in January, on the 16th and the 29th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. Please bring a note pad and pen as we will cover many points. You will receive a pack of winter greens seeds to sow now to provide raw green plant matter VITAL to having healthy backyard chickens. 813 839 0881 or e-mail to RSVP. See you then! John Starnes

"The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war." - Sydney J. Harris (1953)

"John, I've gotten a lot of great information from your blog, and shared it with lots of people. Anything to keep you inspired to keep writing. Good luck with the cold!

Travis Malloy"

Not only has Travis and his wife taken a couple of my classes, now he's donated $20 to my efforts via the PayPal donation button at the bottom of my blog...thanks Travis!

Thanks too to my longtime landscape customer and friend Donna Bevis for giving me a printer/scanner MUCH better than the haunted one I'd bought new but always struggled with, plus a wonderful receiver for my sound system, for promoting my classes and landscape consultations, and helping me to inform the mayor and city council of the severely plant-damaging effects of Tampa's reclaimed water high in chlorides and sodium that ravaged her Davis Island Old Roses garden and landscape in general I helped her and her hubby Larry tend since 1987.

Thanks to the folks who attend my classes, buy my plants with my front porch honor system, and who give me empty used pots. I very much appreciate all the support!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

For me, there is an intimate link between good gardening, good friends and food, soulful solitude, and stirring music, with or without cannabis. I love this energetic yet eloquent performance of my favorite symphony 'Appalachian Spring' ...it is right up there for me with 'I Am The Walrus', 'My Sweet Lord', 'Fall' (by Single Gun Theory), 'Hey Jude', 'Why' by Yoko Ono, 'Sailing' and the theme song for 'Twin Peaks'. If you have the time, relish all three video segments of this stellar live performance. John

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

What a great idea! I see satellite dishes curbside now and then......I want to give this a try using either aluminum foil or the super shiny reflective Mylar sheeting my friend Mary Jo gave me. It would be so cool to make the use of one's stove OPTIONAL vs. the only way to cook! Enjoy, John

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Great dance song too. This is THE most movingly creative video I have experienced since 'Drive' by The Cars. I am so thankful to an Australian guy in a cars forum I've belonged to for years, http://www.gminsidenews.com/ , who gathered from my postings that I am frequently enhanced by cannabis, and am enamored by creative music videos, and thus in private sent me the link to this breathtaking piece I savor several times each time I get altered. To me it is "Beatle-esque" due to the exquisite enigmas presented, like the floating quivering angels in that trippy forest. I'd never heard of the group nor heard this song so I am very grateful for this very moving gift and work of art. Enjoy, John

Last week I placed yet another order with the folks at http://www.evergreenseeds.com/ , mainly because I am all out of all of the wasabi-like (when raw) mustards that friends and I refer to collectively as "face blasters". I got a whole OUNCE of seeds of 'Giant Red Mustard' for $7! VAST selection.....browsing through their many listings can constitute a crash course in Asian food crops and herbs. Reasonable shipping costs too. John

Sunday, January 2, 2011

My showers normally use 1 gallon of water in an Arizona Green Tea jug painted black, heated by one of two virtually free solar reflectors made from dumpster dived components in my back yard where I shower. But Tampa is having a very chilly DRY La Nina winter, and after 15 freakin' frigid years in icy Colorado, the last thing I wish to experience at 57 back home here in Florida is a cold shower that leaves my gonads nestled up against my tonsils! So guess who has been showering indoors the last few weeks? I keep in the bath tub a 3 gallon plastic jug that used to contain snack crackers, and use it to catch the water from the spigot until the water (and pipes) warm up. I was amazed to see that I fill it up every two showers! Think of all the potable water wasted across the country by people also wanting a cozy shower waiting for the water to get warm. This captured water goes straight to veggies growing in my Water Wise Container Gardens, plus roses growing in same. I confess I waste the water coming out of the ultra low flow shower head as the pipe heats up, plus I let the water go down the drain because if I stand in a catchment tub there like I do outdoors, it scratches the wonderfully trippy sponging of marine stain I applied to the tub some years ago to hide the ancient gnarly looking porcelain. ( see pics ). I will look for a smaller jug I can put over the shower head to catch that water as the pipe heats up.....I just hate getting into a COLD shower. John